Strict teachers, all those hours inside four walls, all your desires and youthful energy repressed. School is an endless drag – until she comes along. Uhm Ji Young (Kim Sa Rang of A Love to Kill) has a perfect body and metric tons of sex appeal, and she knows it. Needless to say, all the [...]
In South Korea, summer is the season for horror films, and the first to hit theaters in 2007 was Kim Ji Hwan’s directorial debut, The Evil Twin. A rare entry into the historical horror genre, this Joseon period chiller offers a horrifying interpretation of the classic Cinderella story of Kongji and Patzzi. One of the [...]
Happy families are all alike, but unhappy families are a totally different story, as can be seen in director Shim Kwang Jin’s 2006 film Mr. Lee vs. Mr. Lee (a.k.a. Long Day’s Journey into Night). The “Mr. Lee” in the title refers to both the protagonist and the lead, veteran actor Lee Dae Geun. Having [...]
The West has Dracula, a creature that is widely known and feared. In Korea there is a legendary female ghost looking for a true love, a fox with nine tails. This 1994 film is a contemporary fantasy about a woman who is half human and half fox. In order for her to become a complete [...]
With Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as a pair of brazen wedding crashers, this buddy/romantic comedy milks a few big laughs from its foolproof premise. Under the direction of David Dobkin (who previously worked with Wilson on Shanghai Knights), the movie ranges from bawdy romp to mushy romance, and that tonal identity crisis curtails the [...]
Little is known of Han Gil Su, a Korean national who reportedly worked as a double agent in Hawaii during the Second World War. But now his story is brought to the big screen, in director Lee In Soo’s Haan. Celebrated TV actor Ahn Jae Mo stars as Han, who after moving from Korea to [...]
With his masterful, multi -award -winning vengeance trilogy, Park Chan Wook won accolades at home and abroad, and became the object of cult for many film fans, from the grindhouse aficionado to the arthouse purist. Following the anger and violence of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Old Boy, however, Park was [...]
For much of the 1980s, the formidable trio of director Bae Chang Ho, actor Ahn Sung Ki, and writer Choi In Ho dominated Korean cinema, garnering critical and popular acclaim alike with a series of outstanding films. Starting with 1983′s Flower on the Equator, Bae and company went on to deliver some of the most [...]
Internationally renowned Korean director Park Kwang Su made his directorial debut in 1988 with the highly acclaimed Chilsoo and Mansoo, considered by many to be the pioneering film of the Korean New Wave. The film pairs for the first time acclaimed actors Ahn Sung Ki and Park Joong Hoon, who would later go on to [...]
Film fans recognize Cha Tae Hyun as the lead of romantic favorites like My Sassy Girl and My Girl and I, but the popular actor has also dabbled in music and has two albums under his belt. Merging his acting and singing careers, Cha Tae Hyun gives his vocal cords a stretch in Highway Star, [...]